


Family Ties

by SaraJaye



Series: Ever After 'Verse [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Birthday Presents, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Family Reunions, Keith and Acxa as adoptive siblings, Keith is loved, M/M, Shiro is the best husband
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 12:10:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16387475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaraJaye/pseuds/SaraJaye
Summary: Keith gets the birthday surprise of a lifetime.





	Family Ties

**Author's Note:**

> Uses the name Heath for Keith's dad. Some of the more prominent fans latched onto that one and it stuck with me. Plus I had a hard time thinking of anything better. Also takes place in the Ever After 'verse.
> 
> Happy birthday, Keith. You deserve all the good things.

"Happy birthday, Dad!"

This morning, the alarm clock was replaced by a party whistle and his seven-year-old adopted daughter bouncing onto the bed, still in her pajamas. Keith had noticed the bed suddenly feeling empty at some point during his usual period of half-sleep earlier that morning, but figured Shiro was just getting up use the bathroom or put the coffee on.

His husband was setting a pile of gifts and two cards on the bed, though, and setting a tray on his lap.

"I hope it tastes okay. I followed Hunk's recipe exactly." Shiro was still a disaster in the kitchen, but ever since they brought Athena home he'd gotten serious about learning to cook. The pancakes _smell_ good, and when Keith tastes them they're just like Hunk's.

"Perfect." He smiled. "I can't decide whether to finish or start opening everything!"

"Eat," Shiro said. "You'll need your energy for today." Keith groaned playfully, taking a sip of coffee.

"I did mention I don't like surprise parties, right?" His friends and Mom knew, that's why everyone was coming to their house for dinner later. But he had a sinking feeling that even if he _did_ mention it to his co-workers at the Garrison, they had something in mind anyway.

"You think Old Man Iverson sent you a card?" Athena asked. Her fathers' history with Iverson was one of her favorite stories, because she was utterly fascinated by how a grouchy hardass who used to yell at Keith all the time was sort of their friend now. Not the "keep in touch on every social media account with dumb selfies and memes" kind, but the old-fashioned "send Christmas letters and check in on you once in a while" kind.

"He didn't last year, but he might this year," Keith laughed. "You never know with some people."

"I bet your kids have cards for you. A whole tree," Shiro said. "Now eat up, you've got presents to open!"

 

After a day of every student begging him to open their card first, badly-hung streamers and burnt cupcakes in the classroom, edible cupcakes and flowers from the rest of the staff, and a free pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks (the only acceptable form of pumpkin-flavored anything besides pumpkin pie, in Keith's view), Keith came home to a massive stack of cards on the table.

He knew he'd be getting more cards than before, after amassing so many new friends plus having his mom back in his life. In fact, half of them turned out to be from Mom to make up for all eighteen birthdays she'd missed before they'd found each other. But when Keith leafed through the pile, one in particular stuck out at him. A pale yellow one, decorated with flower stickers, from an address he didn't recognize.

"Honey?" he called to Shiro, who was dusting the living room. "When did these get here?"

"Athena picked up the mail as soon as she came home from school," Shiro said, striding into the kitchen. "I haven't had a chance to look. Birthday cards, right?"

"Look at this one." Keith held up the yellow envelope. "Why would some random person be sending me a birthday greeting?"

"Let me see." Shiro looked over his shoulder, studied it, and his eyes widened. "Keith...check the return address."

 _J.H. Kogane._ Keith blinked, rubbed his eyes, and examined it as closely as possible. J.H. Kogane, from Colorado.

" _How?_ " He frowned. "Mom told me Dad had a big family, but he never talked to _me_ about them. They never came over for holidays, send us cards, never called us. I was sure they didn't know I existed!"

"They must've found out somehow," Shiro said with a shrug. "You want to open it now, or wait till later?" Keith smiled wryly.

"That's like asking if I'd rather give Athena ten pounds of sugar in the morning or before bedtime. Either way things are gonna get all shaken up."

"Did someone call me?" Athena, clothes covered in dust and her pigtails coming undone, bounced into the kitchen, Kosmo at her side. Keith knelt down to pet the wolf while Shiro wet a dish towel to clean the girl's face.

"Nothing important, sweetie, we're just talking about a weird birthday card Dad got," Shiro said. "Did you get your room clean?"

"Yep! Kosmo helped," Athena said proudly. Keith chuckled, grabbing another damp towel to wipe down Kosmo's fur.

"I can see that."

"So is he gonna open the card?" Athena asked. Keith glanced at the pile, then at Shiro, then at the pile again.

"I'm gonna wait. I want to be in a good mood for this party, this is the first time I get to celebrate my birthday with more than one person and I'm gonna enjoy it!" Shiro smiled.

"Good call, Starlight." He pulled Keith up and towards him for a soft kiss. "You deserve all the good things life's denied you until now." Keith got to kiss back for a few seconds before Athena flung her arms around them both and Kosmo licked his hand.

"Dad's never gonna be all alone again!" Athena proclaimed. Keith smiled, his eyes misting over a bit.

"Trust me, with you guys, the Paladins, my students, and Mom adopting Acxa? I couldn't feel lonely anymore if I tried."

 

The party was a blast. Everyone insisted on bringing a dish so Hunk didn't have to cook everything himself, the Paladins had put together a memory album of their time in space and all their adventures, and Acxa was fitting into her new role as his adoptive sister surprisingly well. She'd even given him a gag gift from Spencer's (albeit a tasteful one, thank God).

"As soon as we find out when your birthday is in Earth years, we'll give you a party," he said as they hugged. "Or you can claim whatever day you want, no big deal." Acxa grinned.

"I'll get back to you on that one. I need to figure out how old I am in Earth years, first." One of the biggest adventures of life after the war was helping any aliens living on Earth now adjust to the new calendars. Shay had it easiest, with the Balmera's cycle being close to Earth's, while Altean dates were trickier. Allura and Coran were still getting used to Christmas being during the colder months.

When the party broke up, Shiro and Athena helped him carry his gifts to the master bedroom, and Keith remembered the unopened card from earlier.

"Guess it's time," he said as he changed into his pajamas, settling into bed. His little family surrounded him, bolstering his strength as he opened the yellow envelope. 

_Keith, my dear boy,_

_Happy birthday, and many happy returns! I send you this greeting with a heartfelt apology. Heath, rest his soul, never once thought to tell me that he'd had a child. It was your mother who reached out to me, her explanation simply broke my heart! My poor son, so afraid we'd look down on him for marrying a Galra woman, afraid we'd think badly of the child he loved so much! Ah, so many if-only's, so many regrets, but the silver lining is that you live and are doing well. A Paladin of Voltron! If Heath were alive to see this..._

_But this old lady rambles. Keith, darling, you have many relatives who wish to meet you. We're scattered, but we can easily arrange the travel. Would you like to visit with Grandpa and I in the mountains, or should we come to you in the desert? We hear you're a father and a husband now, we look forward to meeting the man who stole your heart and the little one!_

_Love and kisses,  
Your grandma Jasmine_

By the end, Keith's eyes were blurred with tears. _Family. Dad's family._ And Mom, he might have thought she had something to do with this.

"I have a grandmother," he whispered. Shiro hugged him close from behind while Athena wiped away his tears with the sleeve of her pajama shirt.

"Don't cry, Dad. Look, there's something else in there." She pulled a slip of paper out of the card. "Oh hey, it's a check for-" Her eyes widened. "Oh my God, we're rich!" Keith blinked away the rest of his tears.

"Let me see that." It was a check, all right. For ten thousand dollars. "No way. Even if this was back-presents, it'd be only two-thousand at most, if that much." He shook his head. "This is crazy. I mean, sure, I _was_ poor a lot of my life, and we're not millionaires now, but..."

"We're comfortable," Shiro said. "And we still are, Athena, not quite Bill Gates levels of millionaire."

"But it's so much! We could take a vacation to Europe with all that!" Athena cried. "Or buy a big outdoor playground for Kosmo!" Keith laughed, ruffling her hair and setting the card aside to pull her onto his lap.

"We'll talk about it later." They made enough to pay the bills, so it was a choice between using the check for pleasure or letting it gain interest in the bank. "So when should we go?" Shiro blinked.

"You want to? Not that I don't, but I would've thought you'd need more time to process all this. I mean, suddenly finding out you've got a whole family out there waiting for you..."

Keith closed his eyes, leaning into his husband and pulling Athena closer.

"I thought so, too. I mean, the moment I saw the envelope I knew it couldn't be some other Kogane. But reading what she wrote, realizing how she must have felt when Mom told her about me..." He petted the worried Kosmo, smiling as the wolf licked his hand. "She missed out on all this time with me, and I know how that feels. I want to meet her, I want to meet the rest of these relatives."

He shifted to look up at Shiro.

"I want them to meet you. I want to tell them how happy you've made me."

"Oh, Starlight..." Shiro's own eyes grew wet as he kissed Keith's forehead. "Then I want to meet them as soon as possible. This weekend might be a little short notice to plan a trip, so how about early November?"

"The second week!" Athena said. "Teacher conventions, remember? Then we can go Thursday and make a big weekend of it! I mean, if you guys can get the time off."

"I bet we could," Keith said. "I'm sure I could find someone to sub for me."

 

The next few weeks, with the exception of Halloween, were spent planning their trip to Colorado. Ina Leifsdottir agreed to substitute for Keith on Thursday and Friday, and Shiro was able to fix up his old plane rather than spend money on tickets and deal with the airport. Plus, this way they didn't have to pay extra for Kosmo to ride with them.

They took turns flying, just like they would for a road trip, Athena squealing over how tiny everything looks. Kosmo was surprisingly well-behaved, and Keith hoped it lasted. He'd explained that his and Shiro's dog was a wolf, but not the teleportation part.

Hopefully he wouldn't need to.

"It's so _cold_ here!" Athena proclaimed as they landed their plane at the airstrip. Keith had let them know in advance that he and Shiro would be flying their own plane, which surprised no one given Shiro's status as an ace pilot and both their status as Paladins of Voltron. Keith almost wished they could have taken Black, just to show him off, but parking him would have been even more complicated. Plus, he needed quintessence to recharge.

Keith would show them pictures, and hopefully that would be enough. If this went well, he'd invite them to visit _him_ next.

The moment they stepped off the plane, Keith barely put down his suitcase before he was engulfed in hugs. Half the relatives were crying, and Keith couldn't help joining them. Reading the card had been emotional enough, but seeing everyone in person, realizing that he wasn't too late to get to know these people he'd never dreamed existed, was so overwhelming.

Five long years he'd spent after Dad died, alone, thinking no one would ever want him. In the space of five years more he'd gained friends, his mother, the man he loved more than life itself, a daughter, and now this.

_I found them, Dad. I'm sorry you can't be here for this, but I know you're watching._

"Come on, y'all, let's go back to the house," Jasmine said. She'd pasted her photo into the card, too, and he could see where Dad got his smile from. "I bet you're starving, we're gonna cook you up a feast like you've never seen!"

"By the way, thanks for the check, but that's way more than twenty missed birthdays," Keith said. Jasmine winked.

"You forgot Christmas presents, too, honey." Oh, right. Keith laughed, scooping Athena into his arms while Shiro took Kosmo's leash.

"Well, thanks. We all really appreciate it."

"Don't spend it on silly things like bills and utilities, either," Jasmine said firmly. "Take a vacation or give Athena a shopping spree at a candy store!" Athena grinned, showing off a space where she'd recently lost another tooth.

"I like having a great-grandma!"

"Oh, we look forward to getting to know this little one," said a woman Keith guessed was Dad's sister, judging by the ears.

"And how you snagged Takashi Shirogane as a husband," another woman piped up. "Tell us _everything._ " Keith smiled at Shiro, who wrapped his free arm around him.

"We'll tell you over dinner. It's a long story, with a lot of twists," Shiro said. "But a story I'd live out again and again just for this moment."

They piled into two separate cars and were back at the house in moments, everyone bundled by the fire with cups of cocoa or tea, Keith sandwiched between Shiro and his aunt. Laurie, her name was, and she was so like Dad it was uncanny.

"Let's do it this way," Laurie said. "You tell us how you met, and we'll tell you some stories about your dad's and my childhood. You'd never believe it, but Heath was quite the hellraiser." Shiro grinned.

"Oh, I believe it."

And he and Keith began their story.


End file.
